While the nurse was inserting an intravenous on my first chemotherapy day I sat next to a woman who was on her last day of chemo. I had chemo scheduled every two weeks x8. She proceeded to tell me of all of the horrible side effects she suffered after her first chemo session- the nausea, the vomiting, the suffering for days. I looked at the nurse and asked if she could find me another cubicle. Can you imagine the horror I felt as that chemo went through my veins. I went home and waited and nothing happened. I had no side effects during these 8 sessions except for extreme lethargy, sore and bleeding gums, and weight loss. No nausea, no vomiting. I have always wondered why this woman would tell me her story. Was she angry, was her course not going well?
I never complained to any of the patients I met through the next 7 sessions. For the most part, they were all wonderful souls, getting through their days the best they could. I am 7 years out now.

A most profoundly compelling and time well spent watching and listening to 53 minutes and 9 seconds of his opinion of the world, his facing death and on the luminaries in our culture. Make the time to watch this. Thanks Gus.

Is there a greater polemecist in the world today than Christopher?
In all the years I’ve read and watched him I’ve yet to see him put on the spot by anyone.
If I thought it would help I’d even pray for him;but feel(as a fellow disbeliever)that;that would be an insult.
Kudos to the medical team who are attempting to help him survive.
The world needs(especially now)people with his gifted articulation; to
disabuse us of the bullshit perpetrated by those with special interests.

re: #3 hellosnackbar

On that point:

Thank Goodness!

Yes, I did have an epiphany. I saw with greater clarity than ever before in my life that when I say “Thank goodness!” this is not merely a euphemism for “Thank God!” (We atheists don’t believe that there is any God to thank.) I really do mean thank goodness! There is a lot of goodness in this world, and more goodness every day, and this fantastic human-made fabric of excellence is genuinely responsible for the fact that I am alive today. It is a worthy recipient of the gratitude I feel today, and I want to celebrate that fact here and now.

…

The best thing about saying thank goodness in place of thank God is that there really are lots of ways of repaying your debt to goodness—by setting out to create more of it, for the benefit of those to come. Goodness comes in many forms, not just medicine and science. Thank goodness for the music of, say, Randy Newman, which could not exist without all those wonderful pianos and recording studios, to say nothing of the musical contributions of every great composer from Bach through Wagner to Scott Joplin and the Beatles. Thank goodness for fresh drinking water in the tap, and food on our table. Thank goodness for fair elections and truthful journalism. If you want to express your gratitude to goodness, you can plant a tree, feed an orphan, buy books for schoolgirls in the Islamic world, or contribute in thousands of other ways to the manifest improvement of life on this planet now and in the near future.